The Illusionist's Blade
by Aztris
Summary: He returns in the surface once again. Only this time, he had to face what he had left. But he is not alone. Not anymore.


[Passengers, the Dustplane will land shortly; please remain seated and expected a few turbulence.]

His eyes opened after hearing the announcement. Idly, he wondered if going all the way towards that particular place was worth his pay. He doesn't really remember how he got hooked in infiltrating Beacon Academy, but his word was his bond. The client was willing to pay a large sum for the information he wanted, he guessed that maybe it was worthwhile. After all, with all that zeros he would be able to buy the mansion he had always wanted.

He creak his neck and looked around. People around him were seated and making last preparations before departing. His eyes fell on a certain person sitting beside him. She was wearing a simple track suit that did not show an ounce of her skin. Relaxing against the reclining chair, he heterochromatic eyes were focused on a book. Her hair just like her eyes, were in a set of different colors; pink and black swirled, just like a double flavored ice cream.

He snorted before looking around once again. After making sure that no one was looking on their location, his left hand reached towards the girl's nose. Strangely, the girl, despite having the incoming hand in her line of sight, did not move even when it reached her nose. Her eyes continued to move to whatever she was reading. He smirked as he roughly pulled the girl's nose, but instead of dragging her head, the girl's profile merely shattered like a mirror.

Revealing another girl of the same face, sleeping.

His smile reaching his ears, his hand softly pinched her nose, blocking any air that would enter from her nose. As expected, a few seconds later, the girl woke up in alarm and started to coughed adorably. He smirked and reclined on his seat, praising himself for masterful execution. He ignored the blank stare that was sent to him by the girl, opting to rummage his bag. Once he got what he wanted, he faced that girl who was still staring blankly at him.

"Get over it already,"

"…"

"You didn't wake up after the announcement so I thought I should help."

"…"

"Hmph! It's your own fault, not mine."

"…"

"Well, I will admit it was entertaining. I find your reaction quite adorable."

"…!"

He chuckled as the girl hit him lightly on the head. But then got serious, noticing this, the girl removed the flushed expression on her face and stared at him. There were no words said, but he understood what she was trying to say. He had been with her for an extreme amount of time, he knows the underlying words in her every movements.

"I know. I'll be fine, and if I'm not, I'll trust you to keep me in line, Neo."

The girl known as Neo merely inclined her head in acknowledgement. She settled in her seat and looked at the window beside her, showing the ground that was getting larger as they descend. Her hand clenched the sleeve of his shirt, and then whispered the words. It was faint, but he heard them anyway.

"_Everything will be fine, Jaune."_

-][-

As the Dustplane landed, Jaune and Neo boarded off. Beacon was located on top of a mountain, he didn't know who was the person who thought that placing a school on top of Grimm infested mountain was a good idea, but he was sure that whoever it was, he or she was not sane. Then again, he had met his fair share of crazy people.

Neo following behind him, Jaune opened his Scroll for last minute checking. He thanked Monty that he knew someone who could forge transcripts that could fool Atlas. Infiltrating Beacon wasn't the easiest, but he had done something harder. Still, he was quite surprised that even with the believable fake transcripts; there were no questions for them. This put him on alert, but no other things had happened to make him abandon the mission.

If it weren't for the tempting number of zeros in the first pay, he wouldn't have infiltrated this place.

After years of working underground, he had his share of failures, but not enough to dirty his reputation. Because of those, he made sure to know all of the details of every mission given to him. Based from what other people said, Vale security was not easy to mess up. Especially since one of the most legendary Hunters was in their ranks, the very Headmaster of this school. Nevertheless, he was confident in his own judgment. No one knows him, and he haven't done anything big in Vale to be recognized.

He was just an ordinary boy with family problems who decided to enter Vytal Tournament to prove himself.

On the other hand, Neo wasn't that known in the underground like him. She may be talented, but she was still new in the line of work, two years to be exact. Because of this, she was also eligible to enter Vale without alerting authorities.

Indeed; there is nothing that would reveal his true intentions in this place.

He stopped in the auditorium along with the other arrivals. They were supposed to be greeted in their arrival in Beacon. He wasn't sure that the Headmaster would be the one present in this event but he made sure to blend in the background.

Which was hard, especially since his partner's face easily draw attention.

He examined the other people in the auditorium. They were also people that came from other cities to participate in the Vytal Festival. Some of them looked fresh and inexperienced, but there are some profiles that seem to radiate confidence that was not born from arrogance.

He stopped his musing as he noticed a man with gray hair and walrus mustache make his was on the center of the stage. He looked at Neo who was still holding to the sleeve of his uniform. As always, a polite smile was on her face. He noticed an almost invisible eye twitch from her face as she watched the man in the stage strode.

"To begin, I first welcome you into Beacon! I am Peter Port, Professor in Grimm Studies."

He regarded the man. He looked jolly, but the rumors about his exploits when he was younger were legendary. Peter Port, even though he had taken a rather tame job, back in his youth, he was known for his feats in capturing all kinds of Grimm. Not easy, especially when the specimens were trying to eat you. To think that such a legend would end up as a teacher…

"Now that the introductions are done, let me tell you a tale! About a young, handsome man, me—"

There was also the rumor that he was boisterous, and that his stories can knock out a Deathstalker with insomnia. Tales about his horrible story telling was quite popular in the underground, it became as basic as his weapon that was the Blunder-axe.

"Neo, if you would…"

Without a second thought, Neo weaved an illusion that created another pair of them. At the same time, she concealed their bodies to appear transparent. He sure is amazed by her Semblance. Neo the Illusionist was not as well known as him, but only a few people can tell the difference between her illusion and reality, him being one of those handfuls.

"How about disguising ourselves as Beacon students and have early dinner?"

Neo nodded without a word. The two of them left the auditorium, his eyes scanning whether someone noticed the illusion. The chance was slim, but he wanted to make sure. If someone beside him was capable of seeing the difference, they would need to be wary of revealing too much,

-][-

Her name was Jeanne Arc, a first year of Beacon.

She was the leader of Team JNPR and the partner of the famous Pyrrha Nikos. The best friend of Ruby Rose and Weiss' self proclaimed rival. At the age of seventeen, she had a slim build, alabaster white skin and golden blond hair that fall to her shoulder blades. Her combat outfit consists of blue hoodie with chest plate and shoulder guards. She also wore battle skirt but just like Ruby, she wore white leggings and knee protectors.

"It's so boring!"

The N of team Juniper shouted, banging the shared table with team RWBY causing some of the food to shake. Weiss sent a scowl towards Nora for almost making her lose grip of her blueberry yogurt. Ruby and Yang agreed to Nora, and Blake didn't give a damn. Ren had his face collapsed in the table, asleep. Pyrrha was smiling at her teammate while Jeanne was absently playing her hair with her finger. The act reminds her of the time when she was younger, there was someone who always like to play with her hair.

"Let's have a food fight!"

At Nora's suggestion, Jeanne shook her head.

"Not in the mood. Besides, Professor G would scold us if we cause trouble in this particular day."

"Huh? What do you mean, J?"

Weiss sighed at Ruby's cluelessness, she looked at Blake and Yang, the two of them also looked clueless on what was suppose to happen today. Then again, it wasn't made public. Weiss herself learned it from her sister; she also thinks that Jeanne's family informed her of what would happen today.

"Students from other schools would arrive today to join Vytal Festival. Each school sent a single representative for them. I believe Professor Port was the one assigned to welcome them. Miss Goodwitch is the one arranging their places."

Yang snickered, catching the attention of everyone (aside from Ren)

"Professor P is welcoming them? Those poor little critters, I can see P-Steak telling them one of his stories. Fufufu~"

Ruby and Nora got the idea and giggled. Blake revealed a smiled while Weiss twitched, wondering if that misfortune would make the transfer students think about Beacon's standards. Pyrrha covered her smiled with her hand while Jeanne imagined what the transfer students would look like. Ren, was asleep.

All of a sudden Yang stood up.

"I don't know about you guys, but I want to see their expressions!"

That declaration prompted JNPR and RWBY to exit the cafeteria.

-][-

On second thought, maybe he should looked for a directory.

It was embarrassing, him, the man who infiltrated Atlas military program and defeated Vacuo's newly designed Paladin single-handedly, was lost. Beside him, Neo wore a smile, no doubt she was laughing at him. He sighed, maybe he should just tell her to drop the illusion so they could ask someone for help. It would be suspicious for a student of Beacon to not know where the cafeteria was located, especially six months after school began.

Suddenly, when he heard other footsteps drawing closer, he almost told Neo to drop the illusions, but he didn't. He had two reasons; first, doing that would reveal that Neo was using the illusion, and second, it was because he saw someone that he didn't want to face just yet.

He stopped and Neo bumped behind him. She noticed where he was looking and immediately, the smile vanished from her face. He took a deep breathe, he already knew that she was here so there was no reason to be surprised. He didn't expect to see her this early, but it changes nothing. He would reveal his true identity, not because of anything, but for the sake of his mission. He needs to use that identity once more in order to finish this mission.

He turned and met Neo's gaze. He nodded at her and continued walking, not looking back where the eight people had went.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, this is a first. I think. Is there other JaunexNeo fic out there? If there is, I certainly want to red it. Still, I would like to see your thoughts in this story so review. Any way, their past and skills would be revealed later, so stay tuned.<strong>


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